Lately, American Express has been very active integrating promotions with social platforms. I first noticed foursquare deals a few months ago and this past week noticed Amex has several Twitter-related promos running. Both leverage Amex’s recently launched (relaunched?) Amex Sync. Essentially, Amex card holders get pre-specified discounts when they perform certain tasks on social platforms (ie check-in somewhere using foursquare or tweet using a certain hashtag) and use a linked Amex card to make purchases.
It is any interesting approach for several reasons. First (as in the case with twitter), it broadcasts both that the user made a purchase somewhere, but also that they made a purchase using their American Express card. In the case of foursquare, I imagine most users check-in to a location before they make a purchase. Seeing the Amex deal listed provides a reminder to use the linked Amex card right before the purchase is made. Finally, social is largely a mobile phenomenon – something I plan to expand upon later. This provides a natural intersection from which to influence purchasing behavior.
